“Offensively, we played right with them,” the coach said in the wake of the 25-11, 25-18, 25-13 defeat. “But our defense let us down.”

Madi Doepker added seven kills and served a pair of aces for the Walla Wallans. Jamie Quaresma was Wa-Hi’s floor leader with 15 assists, and Emma Jenkins contributed three blocks.

The loss left Wa-Hi with a 1-1 league record and a 2-3 mark overall. The Blue Devils entertain Hanford Tuesday in another Mid-Columbia match.

TigerScots, Irish have hands full with Imbler

ATHENA — Weston-McEwen suffered its first volleyball defeat of the season here Thursday night during the concluding match of a nonleague three-way affair.

The TigerScots began the night on a winning note as they swept aside DeSales 25-13, 25-3, 25-11 for their ninth victory of the season. Then, after Imbler took care of the Irish 25-19, 25-12, 25-10, Weston-McEwen and Imbler squared off in what proved to be a donnybrook.

The Panthers claimed the first set 31-29 and the second 25-20. The TigerScots rebounded to claim the third set 25-14, but Imbler regrouped to win the fourth set and the match, 25-19.

“It was a great match,” W-M coach Shawn White said. “Imbler is the best team that we have seen so far. They are very good offensively and they were able to execute their offense a little more than we did.

“We made some mental errors that hurt us at key times. But all the credit goes to Imbler for taking advantage. They put us away when they got the chance.”

Molly von Borstel had an amazing stat line against Imbler with 26 kills, 12 digs and 15-for-15 serving with four aces. That came after she posted 16 kills and eight digs in the win over DeSales.

“She was outstanding all night,” White said of von Borstel. “She was especially dominating hitting the ball against DeSales, as were all of our hitters.”

Serving was a TigerScots strength in both matches. Weston-McEwen was 71-for-74 with 13 aces against the Irish and 89-for-91 with eight aces against Imbler.

Danni Dearing was 27-for-27 with five aces and Natalie Arnold 23-for-23 with five aces in the DeSales match.

Betsy West totaled six kills and two blocks against DeSales, Keegan Shepard had four kills and one block, Melanie Sederberg added four kills and eight digs, and Melina Baker and Lacey Kuehn contributed one kill each. Arnold led the TigerScots with 19 digs and Taryn Coffman was the assist leader with 24, and she also scored four kills.

Sederberg and West had five kills each in the Imbler match. Coffman finished with 38 assists to go with four blocks. Dearing and Arnold put up 15 digs each.

Arnold was also 15-for-15 from the service line with one ace, Rudolph was 14-for-14 with an ace, and Baker was 10-for-10 with an ace.

DeSales coach Hailee Rogers didn’t report any individual statistics for her team’s two matches and said she was disappointed with her team’s mental approach.

“I didn’t think we came ready to play,” Rogers said. “It was kind of a messed up day. We didn’t even have a stat keeper, so no statistics.”

Rogers said she felt her team was somewhat intimidated by Weston-McEwen and was surprised to learn that the TigerScots had lost to the Panthers.

“I think our girls learned some things from the matches,” she said after seeing the Irish drop to 1-3 on the season. “I think we learned that we can rise up and compete against these tough teams, that we are just as tough. We just need to come better prepared.”

Weston-McEwen jumps into Blue Mountain Conference play Saturday when it hosts Grant Union and Irrigon in a three-way match. The TigerScots face Grant Union in the noon opener, Irrigon takes on Grant Union in the second match and W-M meets Irrigon in the finale.

DeSales, meanwhile, will be one of eight schools participating in tournament play at Waitsburg-Prescott.

The Irish will join Dayton, St. John-Endicott and Wa-Hi’s junior varsity in pool play in Prescott while Touchet, Mac-Hi and Colfax’s JV squad will join host Waitsburg-Prescott in pool play in the Waitsburg gym at 9 a.m.

The Pirates took the first two games, 25-22, 25-16, then dropped the third set 25-22. Pomeroy avoided a fifth set by winning set No. 4 25-22.

“We came out flat in set three and fell behind 10-1,” Pomeroy coach Bruce Crossfield said in summing up Thursday’s match. “We finally got it going to make it close at the end.

“We led all of set four but couldn’t put it away until the end.”

Ruark also added four blocks to her night’s work. Mackenzie Monahan led the Pirates with five blocks, and she and Ally Bott posted 10 kills each.

Ireland Mayfield was the team’s assist leader with 41, and she also contributed five serving aces. Kacey Halbert put up a team-high 11 digs and led the way in serving as well with 19-for-21, including three aces.

The victory bumped Pomeroy’s season record to 2-0. The Pirates return to action Tuesday when they open Southeast 1B League play at Colton.